Chapter 11
Talyn didn't like the idea of Crais leaving. Crais had reassured him that they would be able to maintain contact through the link, but if he was going to do battle, he preferred having his captain onboard.
A being materialized in command, and Talyn dropped his guns.
"Do not be afraid. I am not here to harm you."
You are Kahaynu, aren't you? Talyn knew of this being. This was the one who had asked his mother to kill herself. Instinctively, he was on guard.
"It is good that you know of me. Now, put away your weapons."
No! You tried to hurt my mother, tried to make her kill herself.
"You have misunderstood us. We do not harm our children."
Talyn knew better than to trust this being. He and Crais had discussed Moya's encounter with the Builders, and Talyn had shared that distrust in them with his captain. I understand everything. I heard the story from her personally. You told her she was not worthy because she bore me. Now, you are here for me. I will not capitulate to you. You will leave and let us go.
"And if I don't? What will you do? You cannot harm me. I do not exist in this solid plane as do the other beings you know."
Ignoring what he had just been told, Talyn fired his guns, only to have the pulse blasts pass straight through Kahaynu. Even after the blasts failed, he did not rein in his temper. LEAVE!
"I cannot leave. We have brought you here to judge you."
Then why is Moya here? You forgave her. He was upset by the fact that his mother was here as well.
"She must be here. To make her own decision once we have decided what is to become of you."
Talyn did not like the tone in Kahaynu's voice. He had the distinct impression that he had already been judged, and that the verdict had not been favorable. Then you will have to kill me. I will not willingly end my life.
Kahaynu shook his head. "The warrior's spirit. That is something we never wanted in our children. Leviathans were to be gentle giants, created to serve. And that is not what you are."
Glad that he had discussed this topic with Crais, Talyn said, And were Leviathans to remain stagnant? All living things evolve. I am the future.
"You are unnatural," countered the Builder. "Evolution happens over eons, not instantly in one generation!"
You created Leviathans to serve. That is what I do. I just do it differently. How was it less wrong for your race to create Leviathans than it was for Sebaceans to modify us? He was quite pleased by the silence that greeted this logic.
"There is a difference between the peaceful purposes of the Leviathans and the warlike purposes you were created for."
I was created for peaceful purposes. Not everyone in the universe is nice. My purpose is to protect those I serve and to help maintain the peace. Talyn was not going to lose this argument. And he thought that he might actually be making headway. It was taking Kahaynu a long time to reply to him.
Suddenly, Kahaynu disappeared, and Talyn found that his senses had been dulled. Not just his external sensors, but his internal ones as well. He did not like this development. He could still hear, and he heard Kahaynu talking with someone. Crais and the human were back onboard. That made Talyn feel better. If anyone could solve this dilemma, it would be Crais. He shifted his attention to where his captain was, trying to learn as much as he could.
"Get off of my ship," Crais growled.
"One cannot own a living thing, Peacekeeper, despite what your race likes to believe," retorted Kahaynu.
"I have a symbiotic relationship with Talyn. We are a part of each other. You cannot just sever that link. It is the same as depriving a Leviathan of its Pilot."
"Except that neither of you will die. Your species can survive separated from the Leviathan."
"As fascinating as this is, what is it you want, Kahaynu?" interjected John.
"This… gunship is an abomination. We cannot allow this twisting of our creation to continue to exist."
Talyn was furious. He had been correct. They had already judged him. Perhaps if he caught Kahaynu off guard, he could destroy the creature. Of course, he couldn't leave without Aeryn and her young one, but with Kahaynu gone, Crais could see to their safe return.
Trying to lower at least one of his guns, he found that all control was now gone. Whatever this Builder had done to him, he was impotent. He screamed out, frustrated at only being able to listen as they debated his fate.
"I will not let you destroy Talyn!" Crais declared as he fired his pulse pistol harmlessly at Kahaynu.
"Crais, take a deep breath and count to ten," John said before turning his attention back to the Builder. "You mean that you are going to kill Talyn just like that? You are going to murder him? Because let me tell you something, this boy is not going to listen to you like his mother did."
Talyn could hardly believe what he was hearing. He had not expected the human to defend him. After all, he had once tried his best to kill John.
"As changed as he is, he is still our child, and our children obey us."
John gave a hearty laugh. "Oh, that's priceless. That may work fine with your average Mark one, Mod zero Leviathan, but Talyn has a stubborn streak a mile wide. And what about Moya? Why is she here? Why were you looking for her? Zhaan and Pilot told us that you don't hold her responsible. Heck, unless the Peacekeeper experiment were repeated, she wouldn't be making any more baby gunships anyway."
Crais clenched his jaw and spoke through gritted teeth. "What right do you have to decide if Talyn lives? He is a sentient being. And it is not his fault that he is what he is."
Kahaynu furrowed his brow at Crais. "No. It is your fault. You created this abomination."
"And what if I did? Imagine what a fleet of gunships could do to maintain the peace, to protect other Leviathans from torturous enslavement and abuse. Lifeforms evolve; I only accelerated the process."
"Leviathans would never have developed weapons without your intervention," interjected Kahaynu.
Crais chuckled slyly. "So what are you going to do? Kill me? I would not recommend it. I'm sure there is some way that you can be hurt, and I guarantee you that Talyn will spend the rest of his days trying to determine just what that is. Are you prepared to invoke his wrath?"
"We have him under control. I'm sure that you have noticed that," the Builder replied smugly.
"But for how much longer? As you have said, he is not like other Leviathans. Parts of his systems are foreign to you."
John stepped between the two. "I think tensions are high enough. We don't need the two of you declaring war on each other. Kahaynu, why can't the gunship exist? He's not hurting your children. Yes, he attacked Moya once a long time ago, but he had been seriously damaged and was not himself. Give me one good reason, other than the fact you did not design Leviathans to have weapons."
There was a long silence, and Talyn found himself admiring the human's logic. It was at times like this he could see why Aeryn had chosen the human.
Before the Builder could answer, he disappeared. Talyn tried to reach out with his sensors, but found them still blocked. Crais and John rushed up to command, presumably to see what sort of control they could gain. Talyn focused his energy on trying to communicate with Crais.
He watched as the two men worked the controls and power settings. Crais was rerouting commands through life support systems. Finally, Talyn could feel his presence again. Bialar, can you hear me?
"Yes, Talyn. Do you have sensor capability back?"
Very limited, mostly interior. I cannot even sense Moya. He isn't going to kill me, is he?
"I have no idea."
Before they could converse further, a rather irate Kahaynu rematerialized. "There is a fleet of ships threatening attack."
The blood drained from John's face. "Crais, the only structure around here is that base with Aeryn and D'Argo on it."
"Go retrieve them. There is nothing you can do here to help."
Talyn was relieved to hear this. He could not bear the thought of anything happening to Aeryn. I will try to move closer to the base, he told Crais.
"You shall not do that!" insisted Kahaynu.
"Or what? You'll kill us? You preach peace and respect for life, and yet you would kill a mother and her child? Oh, wait, that's exactly what you are talking about." John rushed out of command without waiting for a reply.
"What now, Builder? Are you prepared to kill thousands? One or two lives may not matter, but thousands? That's something different, isn't it?"
Kahaynu looked confused, as though he were wrestling with a serious internal conflict. "What do you intend to do with the gunship?"
"As you said, I am a Peacekeeper, but not one of the twisted ones who in recent times have dominated Sebacean culture. We are returning to our roots, protecting those who cannot protect themselves. I have made that my mission."
"And will you make more gunships?"
"That is no longer my intent. I regret my actions of the past, the loss of life in my pursuit of that project. If there were ever to be more, then Leviathans would have to agree of their own free will to bear them."
"Does he speak the truth?" Kahaynu asked Talyn.
Of course he does, defended the gunship. We have both grown in our time together and neither of us are what we used to be. I will never harm my kind. And I may have been created as a weapon to use against the Scarrans, but that is not my sole purpose in life.
Crais heard the response. "What is your decision?" Suddenly Talyn lurched as he regained a small measure of control over his propulsion systems. "As you can see, your hold over him is failing even as we speak. He is not truly one of your children. Do you really have the right to exert your authority over him? Over any of them? All children grow up and leave their parents."
Without answering, the Builder disappeared again.
"Talyn, we need to concentrate on restoring communications. I do not want the fleet to attack right now. I believe we are making progress."
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A/N: Many thanks again to nota for being my loyal beta reader. She always gives it that little tweak that my frantic mind cannot always see.
Note on the Mark one, Mod zero, that is a military term we use to describe the baseline of anything, as in the piece of equipment as it was first released. As changes are made, the designation changes depending on the degree of the change. Normally, in the Navy, we use it to describe the unaided eye (Mark 1, Mod 0 eyeball), usually when berating a lookout for missing a contact that anyone looking out the window can see without binoculars. I figured that since John is Navy, he would have had to hear that, even as a Navy scientist because they do interact with others that get out more. :)
